His Cherokee Rose
by Rising-from-the-Wreckage
Summary: Kylee is the firstborn child of Rick and Lori Grimes, and older sister to Carl. Before the end of the world she was an art major in college; but now that everything has gone to hell she will have to learn how to survive just like everyone else. Along the way she will face danger, suffer loss, meet new friends, and create enemies. But can she save a few lives as well along the way?
1. How It All Began

**Author's Note: Hey guys! Welcome to the beginning of a new story. For those of you who aren't currently caught up with the show, WARNING! There will be spoilers ahead! I will be closely following the story line of the TV show (with a few added additions), so I apologize now for the mass amount of paraphrasing that will be taken directly from the episodes. And for those of you who are enormous W.D. knowledge buffs, you'll notice that we will be starting out this story during Season 2, Episode 5. After this, we'll be following from young Kylee's perspective around Season 1, Episode 4, and since she is the main focus of the story, any interactions that she is not directly involved with, you won't see written here. This is the first story I've done that so closely ties in with a series, so I would appreciate a little leeway during your read. All comments are welcome, and this will definitely be a learning experience for me.**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

 **~Annie**

 ****Cover image credit goes to the DeviantArt user Sempaiko. Please check out their page for more W.D. art!****

* * *

The night is balmy. The air lays thick and heavy over the highway, but the gentle sound of cicadas singing in the trees nearby is drowned out by the blaring of car horns and the desperate, argumentative voices of a thousand people stuck in a traffic standstill that stretches on for miles.

Helicopters swoop low and slow overhead, circling the city of Atlanta and the massive pileup awaiting just outside its borders. People are wandering in the streets amidst the cars, confused and frightened and trying to figure out just what is going on. The radios are playing nothing but static, and at this point even the emergency broadcasting has stopped.

Shane Walsh leans out of the open driver's side door of his car, looking up to the sky as the choppers continue to pass them by. Parked next to him is an old tan Cherokee, and on its open bumper Carl Grimes sits with a young girl playing checkers as the adults linger nearby. Behind his shoulder stands his older sister Kylee Grimes, who has been keeping the children distracted with hints and strategic plays on both sides. It's been working for a little while, but they're all growing restless.

"Are we going soon?" the petite, blond-haired girl questions. Kylee is pretty sure her name is Sophia.

"I don't know baby," her mother Carol answers. "I sure hope so."

"I'm hungry," Carl pipes up, shifting to look between his sibling and their mother, who's sitting propped against the bumper of Shane's car.

"I know buddy, we all are," Kylee reassures him as best she can. "Maybe we won't be stuck here too much longer."

Carol speaks up from the side, offering to get Carl something to eat. "Ed's into all this survival stuff. We've got enough M.R.E.s to feed a small army."

"I'd sure appreciate it," Lori Grimes responds while the other woman walks around to the driver's side of their Cherokee, assuring her that it's no trouble.

Kylee watches Carol's husband Ed follow her towards the front of the car, and hears their whispered argument as the two kids focus once more on their game.

The portly man chastises his wife for offering supplies to strangers, and the older Grimes child can't help but feel both sympathetic and aggravated at the way he treats her, speaking to her as if she's worth less than the dirt beneath his shoes. Ducking her head, Kylee pretends to have missed the conversation as Carol circles around the front of the vehicle to dig in her purse.

She turns instead to watch her mom speaking to Shane, leaning on the edge of the open window as their father's best friend continues to cycle through blank radio stations. She can't hear much of what they're saying from where she stands with the kids, but gathers that at this point even the emergency broadcast about the refugee center in Atlanta has stopped playing. She watches Shane step out of the car and slam the door shut, announcing that he's going to walk ahead to see what's going on.

"I'll go with you," Lori responds before turning to her daughter. "Can you please stay and watch your brother for me?"

"Yeah, of course," Kylee answers with a nod, turning to Carol as she offers a few granola bars.

"Ed must have forgot to pack those M.R.E.s, but I found these in my purse."

"Thanks Miss Carol," Kylee replies with a soft smile, glancing over her shoulder where her mom is explaining to Carl what's going on.

"Shane and I are gonna go scout up ahead a little bit and see if we can find someone that knows what's going on," she tells her younger son.

"I want to come with you," Carl pleads, only to be turned down.

"You stay here with your sister, alright?" She fixes a stray lock of his hair and kisses his forehead.

"Hey, we'll be back before you know it," Shane promises him. "Okay little man?"

As they walk off Kylee drapes her arm around her little brother's shoulders, leaning her hip against the tailgate of the Cherokee and rubbing his upper arm in reassurance. She hands him one of the granola bars Carol found, and tries to pull the kid's attention back to the checkerboard.

"Your dad's nice," Sophia finally speaks after a few minutes.

"Shane's not our dad," Carl interjects quickly. "Our dad's dead."

Before Kylee can even speak or let the loss of her father resurface in her mind, an explosion echoes somewhere up ahead. Carol huddles the two youngsters close to her side while Kylee jumps to her feet, and around them all hell breaks loose. People begin yelling, screaming, fighting in the middle of the street, and overhead the helicopters circle around to make a beeline for the heart of the city. Their mom and Shane are still gone, and Kylee feels a knot of panic settle in her chest.

She turns to her brother and kneels in front of him, placing her hands on his shoulders. "Hey bud, stay here with Sophia and Miss Carol, okay? I'm gonna go find Mom and Shane."

Rising to her feet, she looks up to the older woman. When she nods Kylee turns to push her way through the chaotic crowd in search of her family. People press in on her from all sides, jostling her and knocking her against the sides of vehicles as she tries to slip by. She isn't sure if it's been ten seconds or ten minutes, but with each passing moment the heavy feeling of dread weighs down on her, settling like a rock in her stomach.

Occasionally she tries to ask if anyone has seen her mom, but with so much arguing and clamoring for answers of their own, no one spares a minute for the young twenty-something.

After a while she makes it closer to the city, where the traffic jam is even worse. She can barely squeeze through the cars parked bumper to bumper, finally resorting to climbing over bonnets and tailgates when her path becomes blocked, and here the throng is even thicker. The noise of the crowd is deafening, and Kylee manages to slip into the trees where fewer people have dared to venture. Still no one has seen her mother or Shane, and the older Grimes child is beginning to panic. She breaks into a jog, and then a flat-out sprint.

She never sees the drop off until her racing feet hit thin air, and then she's tumbling down the slope beneath a bridge where the bank of the creek hits her with all the force of a semi truck. A rock strikes her temple, and in the dark no one sees her lying unconscious at the bottom of the ravine.

.

..

...

..

.

When Kylee finally comes to, her head is pounding something fierce and the light is absolutely blinding. She groans and rolls onto her side, eyes squeezed shut as her temples throb in time with her heartbeat, and it takes her a minute before the world stops spinning.

Her clothes are splotched with mud and torn in some places, and her shoes are sodden from laying in creek water while she'd been passed out. She pushes herself slowly into a sitting position, still wincing at the pain in her skull, and gingerly touches the swollen area where she knows a dark bruise has probably formed. Thankfully her fingers come away free from blood, and while she has a pretty wicked headache, she's almost positive that she doesn't have a concussion.

After allowing her eyes to adjust to the mid-morning light, Kylee clambers ungracefully to her feet. Now that she's awake and becoming more alert, she realizes that her first priority is finding her family again. It takes her a while to get back up to the top of the ravine, and then she makes a quick bee-line for the road. But she stops dead in her tracks, gasping softly, when she finds the highway silent and devoid of people. The cars are still there, piled one right next to another like some sort of graveyard, and the only signs of life are the birds nesting in the treetops.

"Mom? Carl! Shane?!" Kylee hollers, her voice growing more and more desperate as she continues to call out for her family with no response. She wanders among the vehicles, passing doors left wide open with their contents spilling out onto the asphalt. Clothes, supplies, personal belongings. All left behind as if their owners were in too much of a hurry to gather their things.

Kylee even stumbles upon a few corpses, and the sight of the first mutilated body has her dry-heaving into some nearby bushes. They look like they've been gnawed on by some sort of animal, and then the scraps left behind to rot in the sun. She trembles and screams for help, for her mom and her brother, and then eventually for anybody - but her cries receive no response. She weaves through the wreckage and the death towards the city, hoping that somehow they managed to make it inside, to the refugee center. That's where she knows she needs to go.

The day grows on towards evening as Kylee finally begins passing the first of the military barriers, but there's still no signs of life. No people, no noise, no movement. The city's turned into a ghost town, and she's beginning to panic. Every few minutes she continues to call out for help, but she only hears her own echoes in response.

Until the first Walker hears her yells.

They descend at first in singles or pairs, and Kylee freezes in the middle of the street. Their moans and raspy breathing are nearly silent in the beginning, but as more and more of the reanimated corpses gather around her the cacophony grows. She spots a break in the growing pack and makes a break for freedom, the bottoms of her sneakers slapping against the concrete as she bolts down a side street. Everywhere she looks she sees the dead walking, growling and groaning as they watch her racing by. Soon enough she has quite a crowd forming at her heels, gashing their teeth at the prospect of a fresh meal, and Kylee cries out in fear, begging someone to save her.

Her lungs are starved for air, and her calves burn with exertion. She doesn't have much energy left to keep running, and she fears that she's going to die here without ever seeing her family again. In her mind's eye she sees her mother's understanding smile, and hears her brother's carefree laugh. She imagines that Shane is protecting them, and has taken them somewhere safe.

She misses her daddy so much.

Her steps begin to slow; she can't go any further.

The herd is growing behind her, their gurgling snarls drowning out Kylee's labored panting.

Her foot catches on a chunk of broken concrete and she stumbles, hitting the ground hard.

She waits for the snapping monsters to descend on her, and tears fall across her dirty cheeks. She squeezes her eyes shut and prays for the end to be quick.

And then the first shots go off, felling the walkers closest to her.

"Get up, _gringa_!" Someone yells. "Get out of there! _Vamanos_!"

Whipping her head around, Kylee sees two men standing in an alley to her right, waving frantically at her. Unsteadily, she clambers back to her feet, willing her jelly-like legs to support her weight for just a while longer. One of the two men continues firing into the crowd of walkers while the other reaches out for the girl, and together they slip behind a chain-link fence. She stumbles and someone pulls her arm across their shoulders, helping her along until they reach a compact car idling at the end of the alley. They guide her into the backseat, and with the slamming of doors and the revving of the engine, they peel away deeper into the city.

"Hey, what's your name _, chica_?" One of the men asks her. They're both Hispanic, with dark eyes and copper skin. One of them has a crop of black hair with a bandanna wrapped around his forehead, and the bigger of the two men is bald with scruffy facial hair.

"My - my name's Kylee," she stutters an answer. "Who're you?"

"I'm Felipe," the bald one answers before gesturing to the other boy behind the wheel. "And that's Jorge. What's a crazy _gringa_ like you doing wandering the streets by yourself, huh?"

Kylee runs her fingers through her tangled hair as she explains, "I was trying to find my family. My mom and my little brother. We were all trying to get to the refugee center, and then a lot of things happened at once - I got knocked out, and when I woke up everybody was gone."

The pair converse among themselves for a moment in Spanish, while Kylee watches on in tense silence. The smaller of the two, Jorge, seems unwilling about the topic of their discussion. Felipe appears to reason with him, and occasionally gestures towards Kylee as she sits the back seat. Finally Felipe turns towards her.

"We're gonna take you to Guillermo," he tells her. "I don't know what to tell you about your _familia_ , but maybe he can help you out."

Kylee scrubs her fingers against her eyes, trying to keep the tears at bay. She fears the worst for her family - for her mom and Carl and Shane - but at least for now, she's safe.

That evening the young girl sits inside Guillermo's compound with a full belly and bandages on her hands where they'd been scraped by her earlier tumble. They'd accepted her rather quickly into their fold, and what Kylee had first thought to be a rather welcoming group of gangsters taking Atlanta as their own turns out to be a collection of caring people trying to look after a retirement center that had been abandoned by most of the staff when the city became overrun.

"You're a _nurse_?" Kylee can't keep the humor from her voice as Felipe takes a seat beside her. He nods with a grin and gestures to Guillermo, who stands to the side speaking with an elderly gentleman.

"And our fearless leader there used to be the janitor. All of us here are either what's left of the staff or have wandered in over the weeks. We aren't much, but we're the only ones left to take care of the folks here. We're a _familia_ now, and we look after our own."

He notices that Kylee's expression has turned forlorn, and he places one meaty hand on her shoulder.

"You're safe here, _chica_ ," he tells her. "I don't know what to tell you about your _mama_ or your _hermano_ , but I can tell you that if you want to stay, there's a place for you here. Besides, we could always use an extra pair of helping hands."

The young twenty-something looks up, and manages a slight smile. "I guess I can stick around for a while," she replies.


	2. When The Dead Return

**A.N.: From here on, we will be following along with the episodes in order starting from S.1Ep.4, 'Vatos'. During some parts the paraphrasing will be heavy, but my main goal is to (mostly) write in tandem with the show while adding in Kylee's interactions and affect on the show's characters.**

 **I'd love your insight and welcome any comments.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

 **~Annie**

* * *

Kylee is laughing, sitting in a circle with several elderly men as they swap war stories and reminisce about better times, when she hears the first commotion from afar. Earlier that morning Jorge, Felipe and his cousin Miguel, and another man named Carlito had gone out on a run, but Kylee prefers to stay safe inside with the old folks while Guillermo and his men handle most of the supply runs outside the walls of the compound. Normally the runs go pretty smoothly, but today something different must have happened.

Rising from her chair, Kylee goes in search of answers, following the angry voices until she finds Felipe in the garage bay ranting about strangers jumping them in the city.

"What happened?" she asks Jorge. "What's all this about a bag of guns?"

He tells her about a scouting mission the day before, and the duffel bag full of rifles and ammunition. There had been a horde of walkers surrounding one of the tanks left behind by the military, and today they had gone to retrieve it now that the crowd has dissipated some, but they'd been attacked by strangers.

Apparently Felipe had taken an arrow to the ass, too.

"We've got their boy now, though," Jorge explains with a triumphant smile. "And G isn't gonna hand him over 'til those _putos_ give us the guns."

"So that's what we do now?" Kylee asks scathingly, turning to Felipe just as Guillermo joins them. "We take prisoners and demand ransoms?"

"You gotta understand our position, _cariño_ ," Guillermo responds. "We need those weapons to protect this place. We don't know these people, and they took Miguel hostage, too."

Kylee shakes her head in agitation, but they're all riled and ready to brawl. Making eye contact with their appointed leader, she gives him a glare that relays undoubtedly her dislike of their plans, and stalks off to find that their own hostage has been sat in a chair with Felipe's _abuela_ and another older man named Mr. Gilbert.

The Asian boy looks terrified, his dark skin flushed and sweat beading on his brow. Kylee walks into the kitchen and comes back to him with a glass of water, offering the drink with a sympathetic smile.

"Please, let me go," he begs as he takes the glass with trembling hands.

"I'm going to talk with Guillermo again," she reassures him. "We'll get this all sorted out, and get you back to your group."

"This is all just a misunderstanding!" he continues frantically. "Please, you gotta tell them that those guns belong to us! Rick dropped them when the walkers attacked his horse, and we need them to protect our camp. We were just trying to protect ourselves, not attack your homies, or whatever."

Kylee hushes him and pats his forearm, but the name he drops during his plea makes her heart clench. It's been ages since anyone has said her deceased father's name aloud. "I promise I'll talk to them, but I'm a newcomer here, so I don't know how much I'll be able to affect their decisions. But Guillermo isn't the type to hurt innocent strangers. You'll be okay."

She pauses for a moment. "We have to protect our people too, you know. Maybe we can work out a trade or something."

"What's your name?" the new kid asks her.

"Kylee. What about you?"

"I'm Glenn. Please, you have to help me. I just want to go back to my friends, and I don't want anyone to get hurt."

The young woman nods and sighs, running her fingers through the tumbled mass of her honey-blond hair. Unlike her dark-haired parents, Kylee had gotten her lighter locks from her grandmother.

"Just stay put, and I'll see what I can do, okay?"

Glenn nods, but before she can make good on her word she's stopped by a choking gasp from Mr. Gilbert. She rushes to his side, followed closely by Glenn, and tries to calm him down as he's hit by a full-blown asthma attack. Felipe's _abeula_ totters off to fetch her grandson, and they can do nothing but wait and watch until Felipe arrives to assist.

Minutes pass in tense silence, broken only by Mr. Gilbert's wheezing, and Kylee doesn't even look up when Felipe finally trots into the room, still limping slightly from his injury.

Until she hears the other sets of footsteps, and glances up to see who's followed. What she expects is Guillermo and Jorge and the other members of their crew - But what she sees almost has her fainting on the spot.

Her voice is barely more than a whisper, but in the spacious room, it manages to carry far enough.

"Daddy?"

.

..

…

..

.

For that moment, everything around them seems to freeze. The noise falls away, and Kylee stands rooted to the spot as she watches her own father stroll into the room - Alive and well. She pays no mind to the two other strange men who follow at his heels, and when their eyes lock, Rick Grimes stumbles to a stop.

"Ky?"

Kylee's feet can't carry her fast enough as she sprints across the room and hurls herself into her father's arms, crying with relief and burying her face into the curve of his neck. She couldn't care less about the big black man who curses in surprise, or the scruffy redneck who instinctively aims the shaft of his crossbow directly at her. All she cares about right now is that her dad is _alive_. His arms clamp around her back, crushing her against his chest, and his own sobs are muffled against her shoulder.

"Oh, Daddy I missed you!" she mumbles through her tears. "I got separated from everybody, and the walkers almost got me in the city. I didn't think I'd make it."

"You're okay, baby girl. You're okay," Rick reassures her, carding his fingers through his daughter's hair. "Everything's alright now, I'm here."

"Sorry to break up this tearful reunion," the rough-looking stranger suddenly interjects. "But don't forget we still got to deal with this shit."

Kylee turns to see him motion towards the group gathered around Mr. Gilbert as Rick reluctantly releases her, but he keeps one hand on her shoulder while they move closer, as if worried that breaking contact will make her disappear.

Her father's attention is eventually drawn to Glenn, who stands at the edge of the crowd watching on with everyone else as Felipe helps Mr. Gilbert settle his breathing.

"What the hell is this?" Rick questions.

"An asthma attack," Glenn answers as he looks up. "Couldn't get his breath all of a sudden."

"I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man," the black stranger quips.

Kylee presses her fingers against her lips to stifle a giggle as Glenn turns to look down at the three small Chihuahuas cuddled together on a leopard-print doggy bed. The bravest of the canine trio, a long-haired little scrap, yaps fiercely at the commotion.

During all the fuss Kylee must have missed Guillermo's arrival, but she feels her dad turning and sees him hiss under his breath, "Could I have a word with you?"

Still refusing to relinquish his hold on his daughter, Rick tows her along with him as he leads Guillermo off to the side.

"You're the dumbest sonofabitch I have ever met," he whispers harshly. "We walked in here ready to kill every last one of you."

"You _what_?!"

Kylee looks up at her father in shock, and he levels her with a steady glare.

"We would have done whatever it took to get Glenn back."

"So you were just gonna bust through here, guns blazing?"

"Well, I'm glad it didn't go down that way," Guillermo interrupts the pair before their argument can devolve any further.

"If it had, that blood would be on my hands."

"Mine too," Guillermo counters. "We would have fought back. Wouldn't be the first time we've had to. Protect the food, the medicine - What's left of it."

"I can't _believe_ you two!" Kylee snaps, glaring between the two men as they size each other up. They each pause, and while the younger Grimes snatches her arm from her father's grasp, Guillermo sighs heavily.

"These people, the old ones - The staff took off, just left 'em here to die," he explains. "Me and Felipe were the only ones who stayed."

What are you, doctors?" Rick inquires.

"Felipe's a nurse - A special care provider. Me… I'm the custodian."

Guillermo checks to make sure everyone is settled and Mr. Gilbert's attack has passed before leading Kylee, her father, and the three strangers into an empty room off to the side. Rick sets the duffel bag that has caused so many issues into a nearby armchair, and questions the Hispanic leader once again.

"What about the rest of your crew?"

"The _vatos_ trickle in to check on their parents, their grandparents," he explains. "They see how things are and most decide to stay. It's a good thing, too. We need the muscle. The people we've encountered since things fell apart; the worst kind - Plunderers, the kind that take by force. With the exception of your daughter, that is. She's been a great help to us since Felipe rescued her from the walkers."

Rick glances at Kylee, who's been perched nearby on an empty TV stand. She shrugs her shoulders noncommittally.

"That's not who we are," he responds.

"How was I to know?" Guillermo insists. "My people got attacked and you show up with Miguel hostage - Appearances."

The bigger stranger pipes up from his own spot slouched in a chair by the far wall: "Guess the world changed."

"No," G responds instantly, "It's the same as it ever was. The weak get taken. So we do what we can here. The _vatos_ work on those cars; talk about getting the old people out of the city. But most can't even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that's just a dream. Still, it keeps the crew busy, and that's worth something."

Kylee watches the two men share a knowing look, and she shifts restlessly on her perch. Directly across the room from her stands the scruffy stranger, studying everything with a guarded expression. His gaze lands on her for a moment, their eyes locking, but a shot of uneasiness trickles down her spine that makes her look away with a frown. He looks half-feral - like a dog who's one step away from his brother wolf in the forest.

Like he could inflict a lot of damage without even breaking a sweat.

Guillermo is still talking about how he and his crew fortified the building, barring the windows and welding the doors shut.

"The _vatos_ , they go out - Scavenge what they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter night and day and we wait. The people here, they all look to me now. I don't even know why."

"Because they can," Rick tells him steadily. He looks down at the shotgun in his hand, and then hands it over silently before turning to the duffel bag and pulling out a rifle, setting it on a small table nearby. Slowly he doles out a few more guns along with several boxes of ammo, and then zippers the bag shut again.

The two men exchange goodbyes, and Guillermo leads everyone back into the main room. He tells his crew that the strangers are all free to go.

"I guess this is goodbye then, eh _cariño_? I'm sure you'll be wanting to go with your _padre_."

Kylee turns to see Guillermo and Felipe smiling somberly at her. With a tearful nod she hugs them each in turn, before moving about the room to say her farewells to each of the residents she had come to know during her stay. They all wish her the best as she trots after her father and his group, and while they all make their way back onto the street, Rick drapes his arm across his daughter's shoulders.

"Now we can get you back to your mom and brother," he murmurs, rubbing his palm against her arm in reassurance. "I'm sure they're missing you pretty badly by now."

Kylee's smile is blinding as she turns to her father in shock, and he gives her a smirk in return before gently steering her away from the heart of Atlanta.

The group's trek back through the city is blessedly uneventful. They remain mostly silent along the way, not wanting to risk attracting walkers, with the exception of introductions. Kylee already knows Glenn's name, but her father acquaints her with T-Dog, the bulky African American who gives her a friendly smile, and Daryl, the feral-looking one who does nothing more than squint his eyes and spit on the ground near her feet. She glares right back at him, and when her father's back is turned she sticks her tongue out childishly.

But as they finally reach the outskirts, Glenn pipes up. "Admit it: you only came back to Atlanta for the hat."

"Don't tell anybody," Kylee's father responds.

Daryl, who hasn't said a word since their departure from Guillermo's compound, finally turns to Rick and speaks out.

"You've given away half our guns and ammo."

"Not nearly half."

"For what?" The wild-looking man questions. "Bunch of old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long you think they got?"

"How long do any of us?" Kylee snaps, leveling him with an icy glare. "I lived with those people for weeks, and I gotta say that most of them have more decency in their little finger than you do in your entire body."

The pair lock eyes, each sporting a sour expression, but before he can respond their group circles around the front of an overturned bus and come to a stumbling halt.

"Oh my God," Glenn murmurs.

"Where the hell's our van?" Daryl demands, momentarily ignoring his consternation with the Sheriff's daughter in lieu of more important issues.

"We left it right there," Glenn continues. "Who would take it?"

Rick responds without hesitation.

"Merle."

Realization dawns on Daryl's face. "He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp."


	3. Reunions and Funerals

Evening is falling, and above the calls of night birds and cicadas the steady sound of footfalls and panting can be heard.

Kylee jogs along behind her father, ignoring the stitch in her side as she keeps pace with the group. All she can think about is her mother and brother in danger, and that pushes her to keep going. As they continue up the hill, keeping to the road surrounding the quarry below, they begin to hear the faint sound of gunfire.

"Oh my God," Rick whispers.

"Go, go!" Someone yells, and they take off: racing towards the source of the commotion.

They burst in through the back of the campsite, where everything is in chaos. Rick drops the duffel bag as he begins unloading buckshot into the nearest walkers, and Kylee pauses long enough to grab a rifle and two clips before joining in the battle. Years ago her father had started bringing her to the gun range where he and Shane would practice after work, and it wasn't long before Kylee was learning how to handle a gun all on her own. Now that practice is proving to be very useful.

The clearing is filled with terrified screams and the sharp crack of the guns, and one by one the walkers fall.

Kylee hears her dad yelling for her mom and Carl, and slowly she makes her way after him, nailing two, three, five, then seven walkers as they shamble into her line of sight. Around her the other members of the group are fighting just as hard, and out of the corner of her eye she watches Daryl decimate the skull of a fallen walker with the butt of his shotgun.

" _Dad!_ " she hears her little brother scream from the top of the hill, where she sees most of the survivors huddled beneath the awning of an old Winnebago.

"Carl!" Rick scoops his sobbing son into his arms, holding him close to his chest.

Kylee finally has a clear shot through the massacre towards her family. "Mama!" she cries.

Lori looks like she's seen a ghost as her daughter scrambles up the slope, and in an instant the little family is whole once again. The remainder of the walkers are quickly dispatched, and Kylee weeps into her mother's shoulder as they embrace tightly.

But the joy of being reunited is dampened by the cries of sorrow and fear. Among the bodies of rotten corpses lie several members of the group, clawed and chewed apart like hunks of meat. To the side a blond woman kneels over the fallen form of a younger girl, sobbing as she tries desperately to stem the flow of blood from several deep bite wounds. Kylee can hear her wailing as the life fades from her companion, and she wonders if they were sisters, given their resemblance. The thought sobers her and she gently pulls away from her mother to haul Carl into her arms, hugging him fiercely.

"I missed you, little brother," she whispers.

"We thought you were dead," he responds tearfully. "I'm so glad you're back."

"Me too, kiddo… Me too."

.

..

…

..

.

The next morning dawns quiet and somber. After the battle most of the survivors didn't even have the strength to move the dead that littered the ground, and instead slept fitfully for a few hours until the sun rose over the tops of the trees. Kylee is one of the first to wake, and she squirms her way out of the pallet where she'd laid with Carl to exit the tent. Those left alive are mulling around the clearing, laying blows to the heads of the corpses and preparing to clear away the carnage, and she sets about to help. Her dad is nowhere to be seen, but she watches her mom kneel next to the blond woman who still sits with the body of her sister. They murmur quietly among themselves for a moment, and then Lori rolls back to her feet to depart with a pat on the mourning woman's shoulder.

Nearby Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl are busy piling the walkers into a pyre, and Kylee finally sees her dad reenter the camp as she moves to her mother's side. The pair take a seat next to the campfire.

"Who are all these people?" she questions. "I already met those three -" she motions towards the guys she'd been with in Atlanta, "-but I don't know anyone else."

Lori points out each individual to her daughter - Dale, the older white-haired man who greets her like family; Andrea, who still holds vigil over her fallen sister Amy; Jacqui; Jim; Morales and his family.

Kylee is relieved to learn that Carol and little Sophia are also alive and well, but her happiness is lessened slightly when she hears that Carol's dodgy husband Ed is still around and worse than ever.

"We all met up with Dale's group shortly after you… Disappeared," she summarizes, pulling her oldest child close. "Shane wanted to look for you so badly, but things were chaotic. We thought the worst, but we never found you."

Kylee tells her mom about falling into the ravine, and her rescue in the city by Felipe and Jorge. About living with Guillermo's crew and the old folks at the center. And about reuniting with her father after Glenn's capture.

As she finishes, her dad speaks to Dale about Andrea.

"She still won't move?"

"She won't even talk to us," Lori answers. "She's been there all night. What do we do?"

"Can't just leave Amy like that," Shane speaks up from across the fire pit. "We need to deal with it same as the others.

Kylee sees her father nod in agreement. "I'll tell her how it is."

He strides over to Andrea, calling her name softly, but is stopped in his tracks when the woman levels the barrel of her gun at him. She says she knows how the safety works. Kylee tenses, ready to go to her father's aide if needed, but he wisely backs away with an apology.

"Y'all can't be serious," Daryl quips as he joins the group around the campfire pit. He has a pickax slung over his shoulder. "Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb."

"What do you suggest?" Rick questions.

"Take the shot." Daryl places two fingers against his temple. "Clean, in the brain, from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No!" Kylee interjects harshly. "For God's sake, let her be!"

Both Shane and her parents remain silent, shrugging in acceptance of her words, but Daryl glares at them each in turn before walking away with a scoff. He strides past Jim, telling him they have work to do, and assists Morales with the next body. The man they begin hauling towards the pyre must have been another member of their group, because Kylee watches Glenn become upset as the pair attempt to dispose of his body with the rest of the walkers.

"Our people go in that row over there," he insists. "We don't burn them! We bury them. Understand?"

"Our people go in that row over there," he repeats once again as Daryl and Morales bend over to grip the body under the arms.

"You reap what you sow!" Daryl suddenly calls out, ignoring Morales as he tells him to shut up. "Y'all left my brother for dead. You had this coming!" He stalks away angrily, leaving them behind, and Kylee looks to her mom in confusion. As the rest of their group move towards the next corpse, Lori quickly tells her daughter about Merle's unfortunate adventure into the city where they first found Rick. How he'd been handcuffed to the roof for attacking T-Dog, and how they'd been chased out by walkers and forced to leave Daryl's big brother behind.

"When they ran into you, they'd originally gone back for Merle, but somehow he managed to escape the cuffs. I guess they never did find him."

Kylee watches Daryl as he lurks at the edge of the camp, skulking and muttering curses under his breath, while her mother talks. She can easily imagine the family resemblance, with matching rough exteriors and volatile tempers, but at the same time she can understand how agonizing it is to lose a sibling.

Rising from her seat, she rubs her mother's shoulder comfortingly before braving Daryl Dixon's wrath.

"I'm sorry about your brother," she tells him as she pauses nearby, her arms crossed protectively across her abdomen.

"What the hell you know about my brother?" Daryl spits in response, leveling her with an icy stare.

"I know how tough it is to be separated from them, and you don't know if they're alive or dead."

"You don't know shit as far as I'm concerned, pansy little girl. Why don't you run on back to your Mama before she catches you over here with the likes o' me?"

"I'm not a little girl," Kylee retorts. "I'm twenty-two, thank you very much, and I can talk to whoever I please. But if you're gonna be an asshole, then forget it."

"I'm nearly twice your age, you prissy bitch. Now get the hell outta my sight, I ain't got nothin' to say to you."

She turns to stomp off in aggravation, but doesn't make it far before she hears Jacqui panicking.

"A walker got him. A walker bit Jim!"

The group moves quickly to surround the sweating man, who insists that he's okay, but the tension is rising.

"Show it to us," Daryl demands, brandishing his pickax.

Frightened, Jim snatches a shovel from the ground to defend himself. Kylee tries to calm everyone, working with Shane to keep the tenuous peace, but Daryl and T-Dog circle like wolves, fierce and ready to pounce. Daryl is yelling over and over, 'Grab him!', and T-Dog edges in behind him before wrapping his burly arms across Jim's shoulders, knocking the shovel from his grasp as he restrains him.

"I'm okay, I'm okay!" Jim insists pleadingly as Daryl yanks his t-shirt up, exposing the weeping, infected bite wound on his rib-cage. The men release him instantly, moving away as he continues to murmur 'I'm okay' beneath his breath, and everyone stands silently around him as he pants and sweats.

Eventually Rick moves to steer Jim to the trailer hitch of the Winnebago, sitting him down before rejoining the others in discussion.

"I say we put a pickax in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it," Daryl insists.

"Is that what you want?" Shane replies. "If it were you?"

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it."

Dale speaks up, "I hate to say it, I never thought I would - But maybe Daryl's right."

"Jim's not a monster, Dale," Rick tells him. "Or some rabid dog."

"I'm not suggesting-"

"He's sick," Kylee's father continues. "A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?"

"The line's pretty clear," Daryl interjects. "Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

"What if we can get him some help? I heard the C.D.C was working on a cure."

"I heard that too," Shane answers his old friend. "Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell."

"What if the C.D.C is still up and running?" Rick pushes.

"Man, that is a stretch right there," the other deputy replies.

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection-"

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right?" Shane interrupts. "I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the Army base. Fort Benning."

"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction," Lori finally says.

"That is right, but it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me, if that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."

"The military were on the front lines of this thing," Rick argues. "They got overrun. We've all _seen_ that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance."

Kylee, standing beside Carol, sees Daryl glance over his shoulder to where Jim sits in the shade of the Winnebago.

"You go lookin' for Aspirin," he quips. "Do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!"

He lunges for Jim, but Kylee throws herself between the point of the pickax and its intended target at the same time that Rick levels the barrel of his revolver at the back of Daryl's head and cocks the hammer.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Kylee's father hollers, and together they stop the scruffy hunter in his tracks. "We don't kill the living."

After a moment's hesitation Daryl lowers his weapon.

"That's funny, coming from a man who just put a gun to my head."

"You put a single scratch on my daughter, and I may reconsider in your case."

"We may disagree on some things," Shane adds as he insinuates himself between Daryl and the younger girl. "But not on this. You put it down. Go on."

With a sour look he slams the point of the pickax into the dirt. "She's the one stupid enough to get in my way," he mutters as he stomps away. "Ain't my fault she don't have a lick of sense in that pretty head o' hers."

"Well fuck you too," Kylee snaps at his retreating back while her dad pulls Jim gently to his feet.

"Where are you taking me?" he questions fearfully.

"Somewhere safe," Rick answers. As the pair pass Kylee, he pins her with a glare. "And you need to go to your mother. _Now_."

The younger girl huffs before obeying her father's command, and trudges back towards Lori where she stands scowling at her with an expression even more fierce than her husband's.

"I lost you once, Kylee. I will _not_ lose you again. What were you thinking?!"

"I knew he wouldn't do it," she grumbles to her mom. "Dumb hick and his dumb freaking face."

"Daryl is the one person you _shouldn't_ rile up, Ky. He may not be as bad as Merle was, but he's still dangerous."

"Mom, I'm not scared of him! He walks around like he owns this damn place. Maybe someone just needs to knock some manners into him for once."

"Watch your mouth, young lady," Lori warns, but that ire has faded from her voice. "You'll end up just like your father at this rate."

The two girls share a chuckle and Lori wraps her arm over her daughter's shoulders before asking her to go sit with the younger kids.

"Keep 'em occupied for a while so we can get the rest of this cleaned up, okay?"

Kylee nods in agreement and wanders towards the tents, pausing only when she passes Daryl and Carol as they stand over Ed's mutilated body. She sees Daryl pass over the pickax, and watches on with a bit of smug satisfaction as the meek older woman smashes her abusive husband's head in like a rotten melon.

A little while later, as she helps little Sophia draw a horse on some scrap paper, a single gunshot tears through the relative silence of the camp.

.

..

…

..

.

Kylee grows restless very quickly, and leaves the kids with Morales' wife Miranda when she shows up with a load of clean laundry. She wants to help, and sees her chance as she finds Daryl loading up the last body into the bed of a Ford pickup. Skirting past the rest of the group as they mull around the campfire pit on the other side of the clearing, she approaches the younger Dixon brother.

"Isn't my dad up on the hill with Shane digging the graves?" she asks him.

"Yeah."

"I'm coming with you, then."

"Like hell you are!" Daryl snaps. "You can walk with the rest of 'em."

With a sly glance Kylee leaves him to slam the tailgate, sneaking instead towards the truck's cab. By the time Daryl hauls himself into the driver seat, she's already situated herself in the passenger side.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?!" he demands.

"I told you," she replies. "I'm riding with you."

"Get the fuck out of here, before I make you."

She cocks a brow and folds her arms across her abdomen stubbornly. "No."

He growls in frustration, fuming silently as he debates how much of a scene it would cause to forcibly drag her out of the truck kicking and screaming, and then twists the key in the ignition with much more force than necessary. The younger girl smirks triumphantly and buckles her seat belt just in time as her grouchy new companion stomps on the accelerator.

The drive up the ridge is silent and tense. Daryl makes no effort to keep his displeasure a secret, and Kylee begins to second-guess her rash decision. Maybe her mother was right, and she shouldn't keep trying to rile the hunter up.

Lost in her thoughts, she doesn't notice when they crest the ridge. Daryl pulls the Ford off the road, and then pushes the gearshift into reverse.

But her head does shoot up when he turns his upper body around to look out the back window, laying his arm across the back of the bench seat. His limbs are so long that his hand brushes against Kylee's shoulder, and she stares pointedly at him.

"Don't go getting' no ideas, little girl," he tells her as he continues to look out the rear window to guide the truck back onto the road. "I'm still twice your age."

"I don't think age really matters during the apocalypse," she replies.

"What, you hittin' on me now? Not sure how well the Sheriff will take to that."

The vehicle slows to a stop, and Daryl gives the girl an obvious once-over as he parks.

"In your dreams, hillbilly," Kylee quips before popping open her door and hopping out. He follows close behind, shaking his head with exasperation.

"I still think it's a mistake," Daryl tells Rick as the pair approach the two men still finishing the final graves. "Not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right?"

As he continues speaking, Kylee turns to see the rest of the group walking up the path to join them.

"Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?"

"At first," Shane answers.

"The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, and we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell's in charge here; what the rules are."

"There are no rules," Rick tells Daryl as everyone else finally reaches the top of the hill.

"Well that's a problem," his wife answers. Kylee turns to look at her mother, wisely keeping her mouth shut. Being one of the newest members of this group, she knows her say won't hold much weight in a discussion like this. She listens, but she doesn't speak just yet.

"We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves," Lori continues. "We need time to mourn, and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do."

No one seems to have any response to her words, and so instead they move to begin the ramshackle funeral. One after the other the bodies are laid to rest, until only Amy remains. Andrea refuses any offers for assistance, fussing at Dale each time he moves to help her, as everyone else stands off to the side in silence. Kylee leans into her father's side when he drapes his arm across her shoulders, and holds her little brother's hand from where he stands within their mother's embrace. They watch on in somber silence while Andrea carefully places her sister's body within it's grave, and after the men pile the soil back into their holes the group moves as a single unit back towards camp.

"Burying other people is bad enough," Rick murmurs to his wife as they trail at the end of the procession. "But the thought of one of us-"

Lori shushes him immediately, tugging Carl to a stop as the others continue on.

"Are we safe now, Dad?" the youngest Grimes child questions innocently. "Now that we're together?"

Kylee watches her father kneel before her little brother.

"I won't leave again," Rick tells him. "I promise you that. Not for anything."

Carl nods with a sniffle, and manages a tiny smile.

"Now give me a chance to discuss some things with your mother, okay? Can you go with Kylee back to camp?" Rick looks between his two children, who both nod before Kylee takes Carl's hand to lead him on down the hill. She hears the mention of Shane's name before they're out of earshot, and it makes her wonder what's been going on during her absence.

* * *

 **A.N.: So in order to keep the length manageable, one episode doesn't equate to one chapter. Because if that were the case, each section would be exceedingly long and drawn-out. I will try to break them up nicely, maybe throw in a cliffhanger or two, but most of the time the episodes will be cut down into sections. Opinions and comments are always welcomed.**

 **Thanks!**


	4. The CDC and Twenty Questions

**A.N.: This chapter's a nice long one for you, and there's even a bit of original story line thrown into all the paraphrasing! (Yay, creativity!) As some of you may have already figured out, there will be a bit of a romance blossoming between our lovely Mr. Dixon and the Sheriff's daughter, but based on some interviews and discussions I've watched where Norman Reedus talks about his famous on-screen persona, I will be adding in a whole lotta fluff with just a little dab of smexiness.**

 **Don't like, too bad.**

 **I really loved the imagery that Norman puts in your head when it comes to Daryl's notions regarding intimacy, so I'm striving to hold true to those ideals as much as possible while also keeping as close as I can to the character himself. Which basically boils down to more paraphrasing, lots of platonic bonding in the beginning, and a dab of nerve-inducing, citrus-y goodness. I'm hoping I will be able to make it worth your wait.**

 **And so, without any further ado, I give you the fourth installment of 'His Cherokee Rose'.**

 **~Annie**

 **{{P.S. - This story has taken such a hold on me that I literally haven't slept in like, sixteen hours. So please forgive any spelling or grammatical mishaps. Thanks!}}**

* * *

When they arrive back at camp, Kylee sends Carl off to play with the other kids before assisting Miranda with the last of the laundry. While they sit in the shade of a nearby tree folding shirts and towels, Kylee studies the others as they go about their business. Dale stands with Jacqui, Morales, and a few others by the campfire pit, while Daryl continues to lurk around the edge of the clearing with a foul expression. Her parents finally come walking up the road and enter the Winnebago for a moment before Lori exits with Carol following closely behind. While the older woman moves towards their collection of boiled drinking water, Kylee's mother sits on the bottom step of the camper.

Shane moves out from one of the tents nearby and kneels down in front of his partner's wife, and Kylee watches distrustfully while they speak in hushed tones. From her spot across the clearing she has no hope of hearing their words, but she can see the agitation on her mom's face as she gets to her feet. Shortly after she notices her dad exit the Winnebago, and as Dale approaches the trio from behind the two men move off in tandem towards the trees, pausing to grab shotguns and ammo before slipping into the surrounding forest.

With her curiosity getting the better of her, Ky decides to go searching for answers. She leaves Miranda after helping her sort out the last of the folded clothes into personal piles, and strikes up a conversation with Glenn. The Asian boy is sweet and openly friendly towards the Sheriff's older child, but it quickly becomes obvious that he knows nothing about the kind of relationship going on between her mother and Shane during her absence. After failing to glean any information from T-Dog as well, she decides to try her tenuous luck with Daryl.

"Hey."

The hunter looks up from skinning a squirrel as Kylee approaches.

"What do you want?" he mutters.

"To be a pest, mostly," she teases him.

"Well you sure got that down pat. Now go away."

"Well wait, I wanted to ask you something. Please?"

He sighs heavily and spears his knife through the small rodent's skull. "Fine. What is it _?_ "

"I just wanted to know if anything's been going on between my mom and Shane while I wasn't around. And before Dad showed up."

"You mean before or after they screwed each other's brains out?" he replies.

"Are you _serious_?" Kylee is aghast. "Shane's been messing around with my _mom?!_ "

"Hey, you asked. It's not like she knew your pop was still kicking, anyways. Shane told everyone that he died back at the hospital."

The younger girl makes a face that seems to amuse Daryl.

"Other than that, I'd guess they've just been having a lover's quarrel. What with the Sheriff back in town, and all. Now you got your answer, so leave me alone."

Kylee huffs under her breath and leaves him to his small mammal mutilation with a roll of her eyes. Useful as he's proven himself to be, that doesn't make him any less of a dickhead.

.

..

…

..

.

As the evening grows closer the group gathers around the campfire, and it isn't long before Dale, Shane, and Rick emerge from the trees to join them. Kylee sits between Carol and her mother on a seat scavenged from the back of an old car, and she looks over as Daryl comes to a stop slightly in the background behind Glenn. The hunter keeps his eyes turned mostly towards the ground, but glances up a few times to look around. Each time he catches Kylee's eye his frown deepens, and she turns her head with a snort.

Shane breaks the silence first. "I've been, uh- I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time." He meets Rick's gaze across the fire. "I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So, those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"

There are a few murmured affirmatives and some folks nod. They share a quiet dinner together, but it isn't long before most of the group have wandered back to their tents. No one is in the mood for revelry so soon after the deaths of their friends.

The next morning everyone is moving around early, preparing to depart for the C.D.C.. Tents are packed away, everyone gathers their personal belongings along with those left behind by the departed, and the vehicles are given a final once-over.

"All right, everybody listen up," Shane announces to the people spaced in a loose semicircle around the clearing. Kylee leans against Carol's Cherokee next to her brother, who sits perched on the hood with their mom. "Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"

Morales is the first to speak. "We're uh… We're not going."

"We have family in Birmingham," Miranda continues as everyone stares at them in surprise. "We want to be with our people."

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back," Shane tells them.

"We'll take the chance," Morales replies. "I gotta do what's best for my family."

"You sure?" Rick questions.

"We talked about it," the Hispanic man answers, gesturing to his wife. "We're sure."

"Alright," Rick concedes before turning to his partner. "Shane?"

They converse among themselves to hammer out the final details, and Kylee watches Daryl chew on his thumbnail while the group bids a tearful farewell to Morales and his family. The older Grimes child - though she hasn't known them for long - swaps a rather sincere goodbye with Miranda and her children in turn.

When Rick and Shane hand the older man a revolver and a box half-filled with ammo, wishing him luck, the hunter scoffs in disdain.

"What makes you think our odds are any better?" Shane asks Rick as the family loads up into their Jeep. Without waiting for an answer, he bids Kylee's father to follow.

"Let's move out!" the deputy calls to the group.

"Hey mom," Kylee pulls her mother to the side as engines begin to turn over around them. "There's honestly no room for me in the Cherokee with you and the kids, and the van is packed full of our gear. Where am I supposed to ride?"

"The RV has plenty of room," Lori responds, but grimaces as she remembers the cargo it will be carrying. The thought of her own daughter riding for hours with an infected person just doesn't sit well with her. "On second thought, maybe that isn't the best idea."

"Let me ride with Daryl then. It's not fair that he gets that whole truck to himself."

"Oh baby, I don't know if you wanna do that."

"C'mon, mom. He may be an ass sometimes, but I promise I'll be okay. Plus, aside from Dad and Shane, he's the toughest guy in our group. Wouldn't I be safer riding with him?"

The older woman studies her daughter for a moment - her fingertips pressed against her lips - and finally sighs defeat.

"Okay, but just _please_ try not to get him agitated. I still don't trust him a hundred percent."

"Don't worry," Kylee promises as she pecks her mother's cheek. "I'm a big girl. I think I can handle one grouchy redneck."

It doesn't take long for everyone to load up into their respective vehicles, and unsurprisingly Daryl throws another fit when he finds Kylee buckled in and ready to go in his passenger seat.

"Why the fuck do you _insist_ on pesterin' me?"

"There's nowhere else for me to ride. The Cherokee's full, the van is packed with all the gear, Mom doesn't want me in the RV with Jim, and there's no way I'm riding with Shane all by myself. That just leaves you."

"So I'm the one who has to suffer, then?" he quips as he cranks the Ford.

"Don't be a baby. I promise I'll be good." She smiles coyly at him, batting her eyelashes, and he groans.

"I swear you're gonna be the death of me."

As the sun continues to rise above the quarry, Morales' Jeep turns off, heading north towards the Carolinas, while the group's caravan heads back towards Atlanta and the C.D.C..

It's nearing midday when the RV finally breaks down.

The vehicles roll to a stop, and slowly everyone files out to see what's going on.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose," Dale is telling Rick as Kylee walks up. "I said I needed one from the cube van."

"Can you jury-rig it?" her dad asks.

"That's all it's been so far," the older man responds. "It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape."

"I see something up ahead," Shane says as he lowers his binoculars. "A gas station if we're lucky."

Before anyone else can speak Jacqui comes rushing out of the Winnebago, explaining that she doesn't think Jim can take anymore of the trip.

Shane asks Rick if he'll hold down the fort while he scouts ahead for supplies, and the Sheriff agrees. T-Dog offers to tag along for backup, and they prepare to leave while Rick enters the camper.

Kylee can hear their muffled conversation from inside, but can't make out the words, so she strolls over to stand by Daryl as he wipes the dust from the bike lashed in the bed of his pickup.

"You've been awful quiet," the hunter points out. "Didn't take you for the type who could keep her mouth shut for more than an hour."

"I'm just full of surprises," Kylee responds with a roll of her eyes. But her curiosity gets the better of her, so she changes the subject. "Where'd you get the bike from? It looks really cool."

"Belongs to my brother. And don't even think about touchin' it. This is off-limits to you, missy."

"Jeeze, fine - Whatever you say, big guy." She turns to leave, but Daryl pipes up before she can get far.

"What about that little book you've been doodling in this whole trip? You some kind of artist or somethin'?"

"I guess that's for me to know, and you to find out."

She winks at him and strolls away with a smirk, leaving him scowling at her swinging ponytail.

Unfortunately their brief moment of playfulness is dampened by her father, who gathers everyone around to tell them of Jim's request to be left behind.

"It's what he says he wants," Rick explains.

"And he's lucid?" Carol questions.

"He seems to be," the deputy replies. "I would say yes."

Dale speaks out next. "Back in the camp, when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. But I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer."

"We just leave him here?" Shane demands, having arrived back with T-Dog a few minutes before. "We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that."

"It's not your call," Lori tells him. "Either one of you."

Kylee throws in her agreement with her mother, and upon receiving no further objections from the rest of their group, Shane and Rick prepare to move Jim out of the Winnebago.

They settle him as gently as possible against the trunk of a tree on the roadside, where he makes a quip about some inside joke that Kylee doesn't understand. Something about another damn tree. Everyone gathers to say their goodbyes, and one after another they cycle through for a final word. A few can't bring themselves to speak with him, and turn away silently. Jacqui, Shane, Rick, and Dale each take a moment with him, and eventually they all gather back at the caravan.

Kylee is somber as she clambers slowly back into Daryl's truck, and neither of them speak as the vehicles move out once again onto the highway.

.

..

…

..

.

By the time they reach Atlanta, the sun is well on its way towards the horizon, and clouds are starting to gather. After pulling up to the military barricades, the group trickles out onto the deserted street to see the carnage laid out before them. Flies buzz around the rotting corpses of military personnel and civilian alike - some who had obviously become a walker's meal, and others who had died and rose again only to be felled by a blow to the head.

The smell is overwhelming as they make their way towards the C.D.C. building, silent except for the occasional wretch or bout of coughing. Anyone with a weapon loads a round into the chamber as Shane whispers for them to keep moving and stay quiet, but the closer they get to the potential safe haven, the more the chatter grows. Rick hushes them as they reach the metal shutters protecting the front doors, but no matter how much they push or tug, the grates refuse to budge.

"Walkers," Shane warns as a few stragglers round the building nearby, and Kylee hears Sophia whimpering as her mother attempts to console her. Daryl quickly dispatches the nearest threat with a crossbow bolt, and the others begin to take aim.

"You led us into a graveyard!" the hunter accuses angrily. Shane tries to defend his friend's choice, but Daryl argues that it was the wrong call.

The group devolves into arguments and pleas for answers, and the cacophony of voices draws more walkers to their position. Shane tells Rick that Fort Benning is still an option, but with no food or fuel the hundred mile trip would be impossible.

"Forget Fort Benning!" Lori snaps. "We need answers tonight; _now._ "

"We'll think of something," her husband assures her as most of the group begins to head back towards the relative safety of the caravan, but Rick suddenly announces that the security camera positioned above the shutter has moved, and he begins frantically pounding on the metal barrier.

"Please, we're desperate!" he pleads to the camera. Everyone tries to drag him away from the doors as the herd continues to grow, but he shakes him off. "Please, we have women and children! No food, hardly any gas left. We have nowhere else to go!"

"Daddy, come _on!_ " Kylee calls to her father, edging closer towards the vehicles as she dispatches a small collection of walkers nearby. "There's no one there, we have to _go now!_ "

"If you don't let us in, you're killing us!"

Shane finally wraps his arm around Rick's torso, hauling him bodily away from the doors, but with each step he continues to scream and plead at the stationary barriers.

Just as they all turn to make a run for safety, the shutters jerk up with an ear-piercing shriek. Light spills out onto the concrete, and as one the group turns to stare in shock at the doorway.

It takes a moment for them to process what's happened, but they gather themselves quickly and rush into the building away from the walkers roaming outside. Rick calls out for anyone already inside, and his voice echoes off the high ceilings as Shane instructs Kylee to close the doors behind Daryl while the group progresses cautiously through the spacious foyer.

"Hello?" a stranger calls from the shadows. In an instant half a dozen guns are trained on the new face, who sports his own high-caliber rifle. "Anybody infected?"

"One of our group was," Rick explains. "He didn't make it."

"Why are you here?" the man asks them. "What do you want?"

"A chance," Kylee's father begs.

"That's asking an awful lot these days."

"I know," the Sheriff concedes.

"You all submit to a blood test," he tells the group. "That's the price of admission."

"We can do that."

He lowers his gun, telling them to bring in their stuff before the shutters close, as they won't reopen after they've lowered. Daryl, Glenn, Rick, and Shane make the runs back to the caravan for their packs, and once T-Dog and Dale pull the glass doors shut behind them the man swipes a key card on a panel before asking some unseen person to bring the metal barricades back down into place and kill the lobby's power.

"Rick Grimes," Kylee's father introduces himself to the stranger, extending his hand. He doesn't accept the handshake, but tells them his name is Doctor Edwin Jenner. Then he leads them to the only operational elevator where they all pile in like sardines in a can. Kylee finds herself pressed into the corner behind Sophia and her mother, with her back to Daryl and Glenn to her right. As the metal box jerks into motion, the young twenty-something stumbles and falls backwards against the hunter's chest. He places a hand on her shoulder to steady her, and she feels his breath spilling hot against her neck. With a shiver, she quickly rights herself.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asks after clearing his throat, and avoids eye contact while Jenner explains how he found the weapon left lying around.

"I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough," he tells them before glancing down at Carl. "Except you. I'll have to keep my eye on you."

Kylee watches her brother try and fail to suppress a smile, and thankfully it doesn't take long before the elevator deposits them into a sterile white hallway. Kylee stumbles out quickly with her head down and her eyes trained on her feet.

"Are we underground?" Carol inquires as they delve further into the depths of the building.

"Are you claustrophobic?" he replies.

"A little."

"Try not to think about it," is the best answer he can offer.

At the end of the hall they're met with darkness, but Jenner instructs someone named Vi to bring up the lights in the big room. Electricity hums as a ring of florescent bulbs pop to life, and banks of computers begin to beep. "Welcome to Zone 5," he tells them.

"Where is everybody?" Rick asks as they file into the main work bay. "The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm it," Jenner responds. "It's just me here."

"What about the person you were speaking with?" Lori speaks up from the back where she stands with her children. "Vi?"

"Vi, say hello to our guests," the doctor announces to the room. "Tell them… Welcome."

A computerized voice answers him. " _Hello, guests. Welcome._ "

"I'm all that's left," he reiterates. "I'm sorry."

After that he leads them to another room where he takes his blood samples one by one.

"What's the point?" Andrea questions as he presses a gauze pad over the small puncture in the crook of her elbow. "If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever."

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough."

He tapes her up and tells her she's all done, but when she stands her legs wobble dangerously. Jacqui steadies her as Jenner asks if she's okay.

"She hasn't eaten in days," the older woman explains. "None of us have."

The doctor looks around at their rag-tag little group, and invites them into his makeshift home.

.

..

…

..

.

Not much later they're all seated around a dining room table, laughing and drinking wine and filling their bellies with the first full meal they've had in ages.

"You know, in Italy," Dale is saying as he fills another glass, "Children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France!"

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then," Lori quips back playfully.

"What's it gonna hurt?" her husbands asks. "Come on."

She tries to glare at him, but with the liquor already buzzing in her system and the others celebrating around her, it doesn't take long for her to give in with a giggle. Kylee watches on with anticipation as her little brother has his first taste of alcohol, but when he turns up his nose with a sour expression she breaks into peals of laughter right along with everyone else.

"That's my boy," Lori praises him as she pours his wine into her own glass. "If only your sister had the same reaction to it."

"Aw, come on now, Kylee's a big girl," Daryl pipes up from his perch on a nearby dresser. The two share a lingering look that causes a few of the others to catcall or whistle loudly, and she hopes that the flush on her cheeks is just from the alcohol.

They all continue to share in the joy while Shane tells Carl to stick to Soda Pop, and Daryl turns his attention to their Asian companion.

"Not you, Glenn," he instructs to the boy's confusion. "Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get."

They all chuckle as the wine continues to flow, but soon their voices die down when Rick taps his fork against the side of his glass.

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly," he tells them as he rises to his feet.

"He is more than just a host," T-Dog adds while he raises his own drink.

"Hear, hear!" they all call out.

"Here's to you, Doc." Daryl crows above the noise. "Boo-yah!"

Kylee is nearly in tears from giggling, but the merriment is suddenly dampened when Shane finally speaks up.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc?"

Everyone falls silent - the joyful mood ruined - as Shane cocks a single brow and waits for his answer. "All the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?"

"We're celebrating, Shane," Rick interjects. "We don't need to do this now.

"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move - Supposed to find all the answers. Instead we, uh-" Shane chuckles humorlessly and thumbs at the doctor. "We found him. Found one man. Why?"

Jenner explains what happened during the initial outbreak: how most of the others up and left in search of their families, and how some of them just bolted as things got worse.

"Every last one?" Shane inquires.

"No," the doctor answers somberly. "Many couldn't face walking out the door. They… Opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

Most of the group sips their drinks in silence now, frowning as Jenner speaks.

"You didn't leave," Andrea finally points out. "Why?"

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good."

Glenn returns to his seat, accusing Shane of being a buzzkill. Kylee can't help but to agree.

After their meal the doctor leads them into a hallway interspersed with offices where they'll be staying, explaining that most of the facility, including the living quarters, has been powered down.

"The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy," he continues with a glance down at Carl and Sophia who trail at his heels, "Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies if you shower; go easy on the hot water."

Glenn's expression is ecstatic as he turns to T-Dog. "Hot water?" he breathes in bliss.

"That's what the man said," he responds with a laugh.

They scatter at that point, picking rooms or making a beeline for the locker area. Kylee decides to wait out the shower scramble and instead moves back towards the front of the hall, snagging a room all to herself away from the rec room where the kids will probably spend most of their time. She can't remember the last time she's truly had a space all of her own since Carl came along, and as much as she loves her little brother, she's going to take every advantage of the situation.

Dropping her bag onto the nearest couch, the older Grimes child listens to the sounds of chatter and laughter from her friends in the hallway. Her veins are buzzing pleasantly with the alcohol in her system, and she hums low in her throat as she lets her body melt into the comfort of the plush cushions.

"Don't go getting sleepy on me now," Daryl's voice comes from the doorway. "We still got a full bottle to polish off."

Kylee chuckles softly as she cracks one eye open to see the hunter leaning heavily against the door frame. "Who's pestering who now, Dixon?" she quips.

With a roll of his eyes Daryl saunters into the room - smug as a cat with a saucer of milk - and flops down onto the floor before leaning back against the edge of the couch. He rests his forearms on his knees and lets out a sigh that seems to come all the way from his toes.

"Long day," the younger girl remarks, watching him nod slowly in agreement. He takes a swig from the bottle and passes it over to her.

"So tell me: how did you get separated from your Ma in the first place?" he asks her as she takes a sip of the wine. "When she and your little bro joined up with our group I thought she'd never quit crying."

Kylee chews at her fingernail for a moment before sighing and handing the bottle back over. "What, are we playing twenty questions?"

"Sure are. And you gotta answer."

She tells him about her fight through the crowds outside Atlanta searching for her mom and Shane after the explosions began, and then her tumble down the ravine. "Pretty stupid mistake, now that I think about," she muses as an afterthought. "Do I get to ask you something now?"

He nods, and she inquires about his favorite color.

"Man, that's the dumbest question ever," he chastises, frowning when she giggles at his consternation.

"Well I like to get to know a fella before I go jumping into all the personal questions," she tells him. "You know, like favorite foods or sports teams. Now that's pretty damn intimate."

Daryl scoffs and hands back the bottle.

"Favorite color's green, I'll eat anything I can put in my belly, and I don't care for sports." After a pause he asks her, "What did you do before the world went to shit?"

"Jeeze, you go right for the throat, don't ya?" she teases.

"Seems like you're pretty damn determined to keep hangin' around me, so I might as well get to know you a little bit better."

"Why? What's so special about me?"

"Pretty sure it's my turn for askin' questions."

Kylee rolls her eyes and takes another drink before replying. "I was an art major in college. Came back home when I heard Dad took a bullet on the job and was at the hospital in a coma." She rolls her head to watch Daryl pick at a stray thread on his jeans. "Why are you so interested in me all of a sudden? You don't seem the type of guy who _wants_ to get to know a girl."

"And just what type of guy do you think I am?" the hunter demands.

"Nu-uh, you have to answer my question now."

He glares at her, unhappy with being bested at his own game, and then stretches his long legs out against the carpet. She hears his knees popping while he considers his answer.

"I dunno… You just seem different than the other chicks," he finally tells her, shrugging his shoulders as if he can't come up with a better response. "But you're right, I ain't the kind of guy who normally gets all cozy with the gals."

"You aren't gay, are you?" The question slips out before she even thinks about it, and she immediately claps her hand over her mouth. Alcohol always had a bad habit of loosening her tongue.

"Man, _fuck_ no!" he snaps, snatching the bottle out of her grasp before knocking back a healthy swallow.

She expects him to storm off at this point, but he's either too drunk to stand up properly without risking an embarrassing spill, or he's too drunk to really care about Kylee's accidental accusations. So he remains seated and just gives her a withering glance when she apologizes, but his agitation dissipates quickly as he jumps right back into their game.

"Exactly how many rings do you have in your damn head?" He gestures at the collection of silver hoops in her ears, and she chortles at his befuddled expression.

"Just five," she tells him. "I used to have my bellybutton pierced, but the barbell came out one day at the beach and I never went back to have it re-done. So I just have the two sets in my earlobes and a Daith* ring to help with migraines."

"And that juju bullshit actually works?"

"For starters, you just asked a second question and that is clearly not allowed; and secondly: that 'juju bullshit' _does_ in fact work. I am happy to report three years and counting without a single migraine."

"I bet you had a lot of fun going through metal detectors," he teases.

"Nah, but I never could have a CAT scan or MRI done," she rolls up the cuff of her jeans as she speaks to reveal two scars stretching along each side of her right ankle. "Fell off a skateboard when I was seventeen. Broke my leg in three different places and the doctors had to load me up with plates and screws."

Daryl whistles in admiration. "Wild child, weren't you?"

"Again with the questions!" she scolds him playfully. "You shouldn't play a game where you can't even obey the rules."

He levels the younger girl with a glare that doesn't really hold any true heat, and they spend a couple minutes just drinking quietly as the bottle continues to make it's way around.

After a few more sips she asks him about his own life before 'everything went to shit', so he tells her a little about his brother's frequent stints in J.D.** and some of the better scraps he got into during his school years.

He doesn't pose a question once they lapse back into silence, so as she hands him the alcohol once again she speaks up.

"Tell me a secret you've never told anyone else."

"I thought it was my turn again?" he counters.

"You didn't ask me anything, so I assumed you took a pass."

"Look who's breaking the rules this time, hotshot. I never said nothin' about having the option to pass."

"Well it's an option now," she smirks.

Their eyes meet - a clash of blue like a storm rolling across the ocean - and she waits patiently for his answer.

"Maybe another time."

He moves to get to his feet and she instantly reaches out to grab his forearm, pleading for him to stay. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want, okay? But please don't run off yet."

He's halfway up, his hand braced on his knee and his torso curled, when he turns to look at her. He seems to consider for a moment, but finally falls back against the couch with a heavy sigh.

"That means you have to help me finish off this bottle," he tells her, swirling the remaining wine around within its glass container. She agrees, and together they spend the next hour companionably, sharing the alcohol until Kylee's starting to see double.

"I think I'm officially drunk," she announces to no one in particular while her drinking partner tips back the final drop of wine. She's still sprawled out across the cushions, with one leg stretched out onto the armrest and the other bent up at an angle. Daryl leans his head back, resting it against the side of her knee, and teases her about being a lightweight despite his own drowsy state of inebriation.

They share a chuckle before Kylee gently presses his head forward, cupping the back of his skull in the palm of her hand so she can clamber to her feet without accidentally kicking him.

"I dunno about you," she slurs as she moves to dig around in her pack, "But I think it's time for PJ's and bed."

"You want me to leave now?"

She pulls out a pair of loose cotton sweatpants and a faded tank top, glancing at him over her shoulder as she uses her free hand to keep her balance against a bookshelf on the wall.

"As long as you promise to be a gentleman and close your eyes while I change, there's a bunch of blankets in the closet over there. You could make a pallet and sleep here so you don't have to go breaking your neck trying to get back to your room."

"You should know by now I ain't no gentleman," Daryl counters.

"I trust you," is her simple reply, and when she shoos at him playfully he rolls his eyes before hauling his bulk onto the couch, collapsing face-down while she shucks her jeans and t-shirt.

It takes her a few minutes, but finally she places her dusty clothing next to her bag to be washed later and strolls back to the couch, tapping Daryl's shoulder gently to let him know it's okay to move. He props his chin up on his forearm as she rifles through the closet, and while she piles blankets into her arms, he speaks.

"Your folks know about that piece of ink you got there?"

He gestures to the bare expanse of skin revealed by the scooping back of her tank top, and she gives him a conspiratorial wink. "Promise not to tell my dad? I got it when I went away to college."

Below the base of her neck, between her shoulder blades, a cluster of Cherokee Roses intersects a set of crossed arrows. It's a simple piece with a washed-out coloring meant to resemble a vintage portrait, but the artwork is flawless.

Daryl has finally managed to roll back to his feet, and he helps Kylee spread out the blankets on the floor. "Do you know the legend?" he asks her.

"My roommate was Native American," she replies with a nod. "Mila. She told me the story once, and it just sort of stuck with me. We got a little drunk one night, out on the town with the other girls in our dorm, and ended up at this tiny parlor near Columbus. It was pretty run-down, but the guy who did this for me was an amazing artist. One of the best drunk-decisions I ever made."

She smiles fondly at the memory, smoothing the corners of a beige duvet, and then takes the final blanket for herself while they settle into their beds for the night.

"Goodnight, Daryl," she murmurs from the couch as she listens to him shift into a more comfortable position.

"G'night," comes his mumbled response a moment later.

Around them the building is quiet, with only the faint buzz of electricity coursing through the walls and the occasional muffled cough or sneeze from someone in another room. For just a few hours, they feel safe. It's the best night of sleep they've had since the end of the world.

.

..

…

..

.

When Kylee finally groans and pulls herself away from the blessed comfort of the couch the next morning, all she can think about is that even her tumble down the ravine wasn't as bad as her current hangover. She sits up slowly, waiting for her stomach to stop churning, and the first thing she notices is that Daryl's gone. He's left his blankets folded neatly off to the side, and if anyone were to walk in right this moment they'd never be able to tell that he'd spent the night in her room.

She gathers a fresh set of clothes and slips into the showers, scrubbing away at the dirt and oil on her skin. The warm water helps immensely to massage her aching muscles and clear out a fraction of her headache, and after washing her hair she spends a minute just enjoying the steaming spray of water.

Too soon for her liking she twists the knob and towels herself off, and her stomach begins grumbling loudly for food while she tugs on a fresh pair of faded jeans. As she makes her way towards the dining room she winds her damp hair into a loose braid, and when the rest of the group comes into view they greet her with a chorus of hello's.

Most of them - including herself - are very obviously suffering, and while Kylee pours herself a glass of orange juice someone hands her a couple of Aspirin.

"Are you guys hungover?" Carl asks with a childish grin, looking between his sister and their father. "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom is right," Rick responds as he takes his own seat, sharing a knowing smile with his older child. Kylee raises her glass of OJ in agreement while Lori explains how moms tend to have that annoying habit.

T-Dog interrupts them all as he comes breezing in from the kitchen area, holding a steaming pan in one hand. "Eggs. Powdered, but I do 'em good."

Glenn moans from across the table and Kylee feels for him as Jacqui rubs his shoulders comfortingly. T-Dog tells him that protein helps the hangover as he doles out portions, and Dale can't suppress his laughter.

"Where'd all this come from?" Rick asks as someone passes the Aspirin bottle around to him. He asks his wife for her assistance and she tells that Jenner provided everything.

"He thought we could use it," she says while he thanks her. "Some of us, at least."

Glenn is still groaning. "Don't ever, ever, ever, let me drink again," he whines to Jacqui.

Shane enters with a passing greeting to his partner - heading straight for the coffeepot - and when the Sheriff asks him if he feels just as bad as they do, he tells them that he feels worse.

"What the hell happened to you?" T-Dog questions when Shane steps past him to take a seat at the table. "Your neck?"

"I must have done it in my sleep," Shane replies, settling into his chair next to Kylee.

"Never seen you do that before," Rick points out.

"Me neither. Not like me at all."

Even in her compromised state Kylee doesn't miss the weighted look that Shane gives her mother, who refuses to meet his gaze. She thinks about confronting him and demanding answers - knowing that something must have happened recently between them - but she's interrupted by Jenner's appearance.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing-" Dale begins without preamble.

"But you will anyway."

"We didn't come here for the eggs," Andrea adds.

He turns to the room, studying the group silently as he holds his cooling coffee cup, and then tells them that he has something to show them once they've finished eating.

At the prospect of answers everyone digs into their meal, and soon enough they're all following Jenner back into the spacious room filled with computers.

The doctor sets his coffee down on the desk before jogging the computer from sleep. "Give me playback of TS-19."

" _Playback of TS-19,_ " Vi parrots as the main projector screen flickers to life.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this," he explains as the files load. "Very few."

Kylee watches the last stragglers stroll in from where she stands off to the side. Daryl follows in after Shane, and comes to a stop next to her shoulder. He's close enough to touch, but he keeps an inch of space between them. Neither of them speak.

"Is that a brain?" Carl inquires as several blue-tinted scans fill the screen.

"An extraordinary one," Jenner tells him. But his expression seems to darken a bit as he continues, "Not that it matters in the end."

"Take us in for E.I.V.," he instructs Vi.

" _Enhanced Internal View,_ " the mechanized voice announces as the screen shifts to show a modified 'live play' of the subject's brain activity. They all watch on in silence at the pulsating display of neurons sparking across the screen, flashing like little lightning bolts throughout the bright blue brain matter.

"What are those lights?" Shane asks from a chair nearby. Daryl has taken a seat as well, and Kylee moves across the platform to join her mother as the doctor explains.

"It's a person's life - Experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you." He turns to point at Rick as an example. "The thing that makes you unique; and human."

"You don't make sense, _ever_?" Daryl isn't one to mince his words.

"Those are synapses," Kylee pipes up. Right now she's glad that she spent so much time helping Mila study for her classes in Cognitive Science. "Electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages."

Everyone is looking to her now which makes her a little nervous, but Jenner gives her an encouraging smile so she continues. "They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Death?" her father interrupts to speak to the scientist. "That's what this is? A vigil?"

"Yes. Or rather, the playback of the vigil."

"This person died?" Andrea questions. "Who?"

"Test subject 19," the doctor replies. "Someone who was bitten and infected… And volunteered to have us record the process." He speaks to his computer system now. "Vi, scan forward to the first event."

" _Scanning to first event._ "

The monitor beeps, and they all watch as the glowing blue synapses slowly blink out beneath a crawling spider-web of black that creeps up from the brain stem.

"What is _that_?" Glenn speaks up from the back of the room.

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs..."

The see-through silhouette on the screen writhes, as if gasping for air, and squirms while the infection rages through each brain cell. Eventually the entire brain goes dark, and the struggling ceases.

"Then death," Jenner whispers. "Everything you ever were, or ever will be… Gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asks her mother. Carol answers affirmatively before pulling her daughter a little closer. Kylee glances up at her own mom and then drapes her arm around the older woman's torso. The pair had always kept that close relationship, even on into Kylee's teen years.

The quiet sounds of Andrea sniffling draws Lori's attention, and she tells Jenner that she lost her sister two days ago.

"I lost somebody too," he says to the blond woman. "I know how devastating it is."

After a somber pause, Jenner asks Vi to scan to the second event.

" _Scanning to second event._ "

"The resurrection times vary wildly," the doctor explains as they watch the MRI feed fast-forward. "We have reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute… Seven seconds."

When the feed slows to real-time, Kylee squints as something flickers near the base of the darkened skull. A flash of burgundy that progresses out through the synapses with pulsating red fingers.

"It restarts the brain?" she guesses.

"No, just the brain stem," Jenner corrects her. "Basically it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" Rick presses.

The older man gestures to the screen. "You tell me."

"It's nothing like before," the Sheriff muses aloud. "Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part - that doesn't come back. The _you_ part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."

As the scientist speaks, Kylee watches transfixed. The progression of the virus is almost captivating in a macabre sort of way, but she jumps in surprise when a blinding flash of light slices through the test subject's skull, leaving nothing but ragged edges in its wake.

"God, what was _that_?" Carol gasps.

Andrea is the first to put the pieces together, and she looks to Jenner. "He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?"

"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations," he instructs, avoiding the question.

" _Powering down main screen and workstations._ "

Daryl rises from his chair with his arms crossed over his chest and his expression guarded, and Kylee glances across the platform at him. They share a brief look before the hunter lowers his head and turns his back on her.

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea challenges, her ire rising.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal…"

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui adds.

"There is that," Jenner concedes.

"Somebody must know _something_ ," Andrea insists. "Somebody, some _where_."

"There are others, right?" Carol asks him. "Other facilities?"

The doctor's response isn't promising. "There may be some. People like me."

"But you don't know?" Kylee's father snaps. "How can you _not know_?"

"Everything went down. Communications, directives - All of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here," Andrea concludes. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?"

Jenner's lack of response is all the answer they need, and the blond woman scoffs as Rick shakes his head in defeat. Jacqui takes the Lord's name in vain from somewhere in the back of the room, and Daryl scrubs the palms of his hands roughly against his eyes.

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again," he announces. Kylee watches him sympathetically as he leans his elbows down on the top of a nearby computer, covering his face with a barely-audible groan.

Dale, always observant, is the next to speak. "Doctor Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but…" he takes a breath and motions toward the far wall. "That clock - It's counting down."

Kylee and the rest of the group look towards the timer just as it passes under the one-hour mark.

"What happens at zero?"

"The uh, basement generators - They run out of fuel."

Jenner begins shuffling towards the exit as he speaks, his brow dotted with sweat.

"And then?" Rick pushes. But the doctor leaves without answering, so Kylee's father turns to the computer system. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

" _When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."_

* * *

 ** _* - A Daith piercing is a newer trend that utilizes a specific pressure point in the ear to relieve chronic migraines and headaches. I recently did have my Daith pierced, and so far it's been working beautifully. For those of you who suffer from constant headaches and dig awesome-looking jewelry, its definitely worth checking out._**

 ** _** - This acronym stands for Juvenile Detention, if you didn't know that already._**


	5. Hope and Desperation

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the hiatus. I just haven't been very healthy as of late and I definitely wasn't in a position where I had the ability or drive to write at all. But this story continues to bug me at all hours of the day, and so I have fought hard to push through another couple chapters. I really hope you all think this is worth the effort, and I would love any and all feedback to keep me going. As always, I don't own any settings or characters belonging to The Walking Dead or AMC.**

 **I hope you enjoy.**

 **~Annie  
**

* * *

Ignoring her father's commands to stay upstairs with Carl and Sophia, Kylee trots after him along with T-Dog, Glenn, and Shane towards the basement level. The beams of their flashlights dance across the plain white walls of the stairwell, and their shoes slap against the metal steps.

"Decontamination," Glenn gasps as they rush deeper into the facility. "What does that mean?"

"I don't like the way Jenner clammed up," Shane mutters. "The way he just wandered off like that."

T-Dog pipes up from in front of Kylee, who brings up the rear of the group. "What's wrong with him? Seriously, man, is he nuts? Medicated? What?"

As they all reach the bottom floor, Rick studies a posted map of the facility's layout before directing them down one of the hallways. They pass through a heavy metal door, and someone finds the light switch. As the florescent bulbs buzz over their heads, they see a multitude of empty black oil drums spaced haphazardly around the room.

"Check that way," Rick instructs Kylee, Glenn, and T-Dog - motioning towards one half of the basement as he moves in the opposite direction with Shane. The whole space is a maze of heavy equipment and fuse boxes, and somewhere close by they can hear the chugging of a generator.

All of the sudden the power flickers out, and Vi's automated voice announces that the emergency lighting is now on.

Kylee hears Shane cursing close by, and she rushes around the corner towards him with the two other boys hot on her heels.

"Hey, you guys kill the lights?" she pants.

"Nah, it just went out," the deputy replies as Rick asks them if they found anything.

"Yeah, a lot of dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count," T-Dog tells him.

"It can't be down to just that one," Kylee says to her father in denial. His face is drawn with worry, and he remains silent.

The five of them quickly make their way back upstairs as the electricity continues to wind down, and as they lope back into the main room Kylee can hear Daryl yelling at Doctor Jenner.

"What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"

"You'd be surprised," the doctor answers as Lori leans over the railing on the floor above, calling down to her husband and daughter.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick demands as he meets the other man at the bottom of the stairs. He explains that the system is dropping all nonessential uses of power.

"It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark." He motions to the timer on the wall as they enter the main computer room. "Right on schedule."

As they all make their way to the raised platform, the scientist takes a swig from a bottle of liquor. He pauses at the foot of the steps, swallowing roughly, and then extends the bottle to Daryl who snatches it away with a scowl.

"It was the French," he says.

"What?" Andrea voices her confusion.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know," Jenner elaborates. "While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Jacqui questions.

"The same thing that's happening here," he tells her. "No power grid. Ran out of juice."

Kylee stands with her father and the rest of their group at the bottom of the platform as Jenner looks down on them from the top of the steps. "The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"

When he finally turns away Shane rushes after him furiously, but Rick grabs at his shoulder.

"To hell with it, Shane," he tells his partner. "I don't even care."

Then he turns to the others. "Lori and Ky, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here _now_!"

They all move at once, but are stopped when red lights begin to flash and sirens start to blare overhead. Vi's automatic voice narrates the final decontamination countdown that suddenly flashes onto the main projection screen.

Kylee is on the verge of a full-blown panic attack, panting shallowly as she grabs Daryl's wrist in a vice grip. He looks down at her, seeing the fear written across her face, and faces the platform with a fierce glare. "Doc, what's going on here?!" he hollers above the buzzing alarms.

Shane sets them all back into motion. "Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! _Go!_ "

T-Dog and Glenn voice their encouragement while they all scramble into motion, but as they scatter the single door leading out of the underground facility quickly slides shut. Kylee sees her father rush at the metal barrier, but it's far too late now. The whole group is frozen once again with shock and fear.

"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asks breathlessly. His voice shoots high with fear. "He just locked us in!"

During their commotion Jenner takes a seat at one of the computers, but Kylee can't see what he's doing as Daryl gently breaks her grip on his arm.

"Go; go to your mom," he instructs her, placing his hand on her shoulder to gently steer her in the right direction. He sees the tears gathering in her eyes, but tells her that this isn't the time to fall apart. "Your brother needs you, and I fuckin' _swear_ that we're gonna get out of here, okay?"

"Okay… Okay," she pants repetitively, nodding as she desperately tries to calm her fraying nerves. She hears her mother call to her and Carl, and turns to join her family on the edge of the platform as they watch the chaos unfold. The hunter curses and yells at Jenner while Kylee buries her face against Lori's neck, unable to face the aggressive struggling and fighting between the men.

Rick commands Jenner to open the door.

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well open the damn things!" Dale insists in aggravation.

"That's not something I control; the computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that."

The group stands immobile, their faces painted with an array of shock, fear, and panic. Carol holds her daughter close to her chest, and Kylee feels Carl grab her hand for comfort.

"It's better this way," the doctor tells them.

"What is?" Rick counters in aggravation. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"

When the man turns away, Shane hauls him out of his chair and the Sheriff repeats his question again.

"You know what this place _is_?!" Jenner snaps. "We protected the public from _very nasty stuff_! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country!"

He paces furiously across the linoleum, his rage growing. "Stuff you don't want getting out! _Ever_!"

He falls silent and glares at each member of the group before taking a seat once again, watching as Daryl, Rick, and Shane circle him like wolves. Both officers are visibly fuming, but the hunter looks ready to spill blood.

The scientist scrubs his hand across his jaw, and collects himself.

"In the event of a catastrophic power failure," he explains, "In a terrorist attack, for example - H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"H.I.T.s?" Rick questions.

"Vi, define."

" _H.I.T.s: High-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear_."

Kylee feels every inch of her body trembling as the computer speaks, and watches Carol and her daughter break down into sobs. Her father steps over to pull his family into an embrace, and when Kylee glances over his shoulder she manages to catch Daryl's eye for just a moment. He looks furious, but when their gazes lock she sees the briefest flash of concern cross his face.

" _The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees, and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure is desired_."

"It sets the air on fire," Jenner summarizes. "No pain… An end to sorrow, grief… Regret… Everything."

.

..

…

..

.

Someone finally gets them up and moving again, but Kylee doesn't know who. Her ears are buzzing and her legs feel numb, although somehow she manages to make her way back into the offices where their bags are being tossed into the hallway. She grabs her own pack along with Daryl's, and snags his crossbow from the table in the dining room. Lori, Carol, and the kids are quickly moving their belongings back into the computer room near the bottom of the steps, but the oldest Grimes child steps up onto the platform where the men are still desperately trying to figure a way out of the situation.

Daryl throws the nearly-empty liquor bottle at the barricade, splashing amber liquid across it's surface. "Open the damn door!" he demands furiously.

Shane rushes past with an ax and brings the blade down against the steel as hard as he can, throwing sparks while Glenn tosses Daryl a second weapon. Their grunts of exertion and the spark of metal against metal echo throughout the spacious room, undercut by the muffled crying of Sophia and her mother. There's nothing for the rest of them to do now but wait and hope for the best, but Kylee can't stop pacing. Her pulse is pounding, her head ringing with the metallic barrage, and she feels the tears coursing silently across her flushed cheeks.

"You should've left well enough alone," Jenner speaks calmly from his chair. "It would have been so much easier." He looks from the men still trying to break down the door, to Kylee as she circles anxiously, and then to the mothers with their children huddled on the floor in fear.

"Easier for who?" Lori snaps.

"All of you," he tells her as Rick approaches. "You know what's out there: a short, brutal life and an agonizing death."

The doctor turns his attention to Andrea. "Your- Your sister, what was her name?"

"Amy."

"Amy," he parrots. "You know what this does. You've seen it." He then speaks to Rick. "Is that really what you want for your wife and children?"

"I don't want _this_ ," Rick argues emphatically.

Shane suddenly appears at the Sheriff's side, his ax clattering to the ground as he admits that he can't even make a dent.

Jenner explains that the doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher, and doesn't even flinch when Daryl takes a swing at his head. He's intercepted by Dale and Rick, although it takes nearly every man in their group to restrain the furious redneck. They push him away and watch as he seems to wind up for a second attack, but Kylee slips between her father and T-Dog to shove her hands gently against his heaving chest.

"Wait, wait," she murmurs soothingly. "Just hold off a second, please?"

He considers her with a scowl and mutters a curse under his breath, but some of the tension leaves his shoulders.

"You _do_ want this," Jenner turns to Rick. "Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."

Kylee and her mother look to the Sheriff in shock, and he fumbles for a response.

"What? You really said that?" Shane interjects. "After all your big talk?"

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" he snaps, only to be countered by the doctor as he insists that there is no more hope, and that there never was.

"There's _always_ hope," Rick argues. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere -"

"What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?" Andrea interrupts from her spot on the floor. Her knees are pressed against her chest, and you can see the desolation on her face.

"Listen to your friend; she gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

"This isn't right," Kylee suddenly snaps at the doctor. "You can't just keep us here!"

"One tiny moment," Jenner tries to explain to her. "A millisecond. No pain."

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like _this_ ," Carol sobs. She hands Sophia to Dale and scrambles to her feet in tears.

"Wouldn't it be kinder," he asks, "more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"

Kylee feels a hand clamp onto her arm before Daryl is hauling her backwards toward the edge of the platform, and she sees Shane cocking a round into the chamber of his shotgun.

Rick is yelling, shoving his partner back as the other man tries to push him out of the way, and in the blink of an eye he has the gun's barrel inches from Jenner's face while demanding that he open the door before he blows his head off.

Kylee's father desperately tries to talk him down with the help of his wife, but the other man's eyes are glazed with fury and desperation. Daryl keeps ahold of the Sheriff's daughter safely at the other end of the platform, and she flinches away as Shane screams in rage. The gun goes off, but when Kylee peeks through the tangled curtain of her hair she finds that the only casualty is a nearby computer console. He continues to yell, unloading four more rounds wildly before Rick finally manages to wrench the gun from his grasp and knock him to the ground with the butt of the weapon.

Several of the others scream or cry out in fear while Kylee presses her hands against her lips in terror. As long as she's known Shane, she's never seen him act so enraged and completely out of control.

"Are you done now?" her father demands. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I guess we all are," the deputy snaps in response. Rick leaves him sprawled on the floor as he hands the shotgun off to T-Dog, and a hush falls over the crowd of people. He looks to each of them, taking in their looks of fear and shock and uncertainty, before turning to Jenner.

"I think you're lying," he accuses.

"What?"

"You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"

The doctor tells him that it doesn't matter.

"It does matter," Rick counters. "It _always_ matters. You stayed when others ran. _Why?_ "

"Not because I wanted to," Jenner retorts, rising to his feet. "I made a promise… To her." He gestures to the main screen, where they had watched the M.R.I. videos just the day before. "My wife."

Kylee is the first to make the connection, speaking out as Daryl moves away from her side. "Test subject 19 was your wife?"

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying."

As he speaks Kylee hears a sharp, metallic pounding, and glances over her shoulder to see Daryl back at it again with his ax.

"It should've been me on that table. It wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the _world_! Hell, she ran this place; I just worked here. In our field, she was an _Einstein._ Me? I'm just… Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this; not me."

During the doctor's speech Kylee moves away from the platform and towards the door, where Daryl is obviously becoming exhausted. She catches a few words as her parents continue convincing Jenner that they deserve a chance, but most of her attention is focused on keeping the hunter from overtaxing himself.

Silently she reaches out to touch his shoulder, stopping him as he gathers the energy for another swing. His skin is slick with sweat, and she can feel the muscles trembling underneath from exertion. His hair is plastered to his scalp. When he turns to her with a glare - fully intending to snap at her for interrupting - he's stopped by the look of complete defeat splashed across her face.

He lets the weapon fall slack to the side as he pants, unable to speak while he catches his breath, but he refuses to give up. Not yet. His expression hardens and he gently steers her away to a safe distance, and then he turns his back on her to land another blow to the door with a grunt. A tear slices across her cheek as she sees how determined he is to get them all out of there safely.

He lifts the ax over his shoulder again, but with a single beep the barrier suddenly slides away to reveal a long hallway and he lets the weapon fall to his side.

"Come on!" he calls to everyone as they all jump into motion. In a flurry of movement they snatch up their packs and race for freedom, their steps pounding against the carpet thunderously. Kylee looks to her father as he speaks with Jenner, and she sees the doctor whisper something quickly into the other man's ear. But she has no time to ponder the strange occurrence as several voices echo around the room, encouraging the group to move towards the exit.

Lori finally dashes back to the platform to retrieve her husband while Glenn points out frantically that there are only four minutes left on the clock, and Kylee takes her brother's hand as she feels someone tugging at her other arm. She turns to see Daryl insisting that they need to move, and with a quick nod she hauls Carl further down the hallway. Dimly she hears an argument break out back in the computer room, but there's no time to stop and figure out the cause of the fuss. She glances briefly over her shoulder to see her parents and the others pausing near the doorway, but when Dale yells at them to go they turn quickly to follow behind Kylee and Daryl.

Taking the steps two and three at a time, they all manage to make it to the lobby where sunlight is spilling in across the tiled floor. T-Dog and Glenn frantically try to open the front doors, and Daryl leaves Kylee with her mother and brother while he assists Rick in trying to break through the tall windows. Their axes don't even make a dent in the shatterproof glass, and T-Dog even tries using the metal legs of a nearby chair without success.

Kylee finally notices that some of their group are missing, and turns to her mother. "Mom, where's Jacqui? And Dale and Andrea?"

But Lori just shakes her head silently and pulls both Kylee and her brother back as Shane cocks back his shotgun.

"Dog, get down! Get down!" he yells before unloading a round that does nothing but scratch the surface.

"The glass won't break?!" Sophia cries in fear.

"Rick, I have something that might help," the little girl's mother announces as she rifles through one of the bags. Shane tells her that he doesn't think a nail file will do much, but she explains that on Rick's first morning at camp she washed his uniform and found a grenade in his pocket. He takes the explosive from her and everybody moves quickly away from the bank of windows.

"Look out!" Someone warns as they duck for cover. Rick fumbles with the pin before releasing the trigger and leaping for safety, throwing himself to the ground just as the grenade explodes and shatters one of the windows.

As fast as they're able they jump through the opening, racing past walkers who have been drawn by the noise to where the caravan awaits them. Kylee's heart is pounding as she sticks close to Daryl's heels, but in the chaos she doesn't realize that their group is still missing three of its members.

Rick and Shane take out most of the walkers that block their path - felling each of them with a single bullet - and Daryl takes a swing with his ax at one that lunges for Kylee, lopping its head clean in half.

Rick, Lori, Carl, and Glenn all scramble into the Winnebago while Carol and Sophia dive into the Cherokee, and as their engines rumble to life Daryl shoves the final member of the Grimes clan into his pickup. She hears the horn blaring from the RV as she turns to see Dale and Andrea racing for safety, and just as they duck behind a barrier of sandbags Daryl throws his body over Kylee.

The first shock-wave rocks the entire truck on its axles, and then a sweltering blanket of heat sweeps across the caravan. Kylee flinches and curls into a fetal position underneath the hunter's bulk, pressing her face into his chest as he protects her head with his forearms, and for a split second the pressure of the explosion steals her breath away. Her ears are ringing from the noise, but she can feel Daryl panting against her collarbone before they both struggle into an upright position.

"You okay?" he asks her, repeating himself twice before the younger girl can properly understand his words. She nods her head shakily, trying to suppress a sob as she scrubs her palms against her eyes roughly. The stress and anxiety crash down on her like a rock, but she just barely manages to hold her composure. Daryl lays his hand on her shoulder briefly, squeezing it in reassurance as they watch Dale and Andrea clamber into the RV.

The younger girl quickly settles into the seat and buckles herself in so that Daryl can get the truck going and get the hell out of there, and as the C.D.C. continues to burn their caravan turns around to drive away from the destruction and desolation.


	6. I'm Sorry

**_I'm so sorry everybody._** ** _To those of you who have been so patiently waiting for story updates, and to those of you who offered me such kind words of encouragement._**

 ** _I will_** ** _never be able to properly express my gratitude to you, but it is with deepest regret and sorrow that I must tell you that I don't think I will be continuing on._**

 ** _I_** ** _feel like my story is ending here._**

 ** _I'm_** ** _so sorry._**


End file.
